LibriVox Forum

I was out in my yard this morning and the smell of dead animal was prevalent. Came back inside to work on an LV project and heard flapping sounds outside. Looked up to see at least a half dozen vultures fighting over the source of the stink, the carcass of a small animal. More flew in to join the fracas. Fascinating watching them go to work. Some had red heads, others dark gray. Huge birds -- some even landing on the patio screen structure to preen, others in the tree above to watch below, like Snoopy in that old Peanuts cartoon.

It made me realise we don't have vultures, so I went googling and found Australia is the only continent without them. The only birds I've seen that eat carrion are the wedge-tailed eagles - beautiful to watch fly but the wool farmers hated them during lambing and the most common one , the Australian crow which are bigger than other crows and happily live in the city and country. they are quite strong and smart and delight in rubbish bins. So that's what I've learnt today on Librivox .

Anne

Crows have been described, intelligence-wise, as “feathered apes”.

Crow Multi-Step Problem Solving: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JY8-gP3Sw_8

Causal understanding of water displacement by a crow:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZerUbHmuY04

Chris

I've seen one somewhere of them on a pole waiting for the lights to change on a pedestrian crossing so they can go on the road to get at the food.

Anne

The birds I saw are called Turkey Buzzards, but I doubt they're good eatin'.

annise wrote: ↑March 7th, 2018, 10:54 pm I've seen one somewhere of them on a pole waiting for the lights to change on a pedestrian crossing so they can go on the road to get at the food.

Anne

Oh, I can top that. I've seen our vultures sitting on the poles at busy intersections, presumably waiting for an accident or other roadkill, and near graveyards. They are shameless critters.